Hi Tim,
PRing is both passive and active. It depends on the point of refferance you use.
For instance, during the actual PR step your conscios mind is passive in regards to taking in the information on the page and is very active in presenting the printed information to your brain. During the activation step, your conscious mind is very active in trying to bring the information into your conscious awareness.
When activating, the knowledge you want is built up in layers. An excellent way to experience and understand this is to do the 5 Day Plan.
As far as being goal oriented, you should always have a reason for reading the printed material, even if the only reason you can think of is to practice PR.
I hope this helped. (It's the best I can do with the question you presented 
.) If this didn't help, ask again being more specific about what information you want regarding the PR process.
Sincerely,
Gregory
